Rail-joint fastener



(No Model.)

G. F. HOEFF ER.

RAIL JOINT FASTENBR. I No. 273,736. Patented Mar. 13,1883.

N. PETERS. Pmw-Luho n hur. wan; nnnnn 4 C.

UNrreo rATEs GEORGE F. HOEFFER, OF GHIOAGQ, ILLINOIS.

RAlL-JClNT FASTENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 273,735, dated March 13, 1883.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE F. HOEFFER, a citizen of the United States, residing at- Ohicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Rail- Joint Fastener; and I do hereby declare the following to be a clear, full, and exact description thereof, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

Like letters and figures refer to like parts wherever they occur.

My invention relates to an improvement in rail-joint fasteners for connecting rails of all kinds in a quick, cheap, and substantial manner; and its object is to obtain such a construction and combination of the locker rods and rails that a juncture may be accurately, quickly, and d urably effected without the aid of plates, nuts, bolts, or screws; to which end it consists in the combination, with a fourarmed perforated locker, of two facebored rails, holding in said bores the ends of rods passing through the perforations ofsaid locker.

In the drawings, Figure 1 indicates vertical front or face end elevations of two rails, A A, each of which has two bores, I) b, of suth'cient diameter and depth to admit freely the ends of the respective rods shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 indicates two ordinary rods, 0 0, made of wrought-iron, steel, or other suitable metal. Fig.3 indicates the locker G, made of wroughtiron, steel, or other suitable metal, having two perforations, hand 7., for the reception and passage of the rods 0 c, and are, when the rails are slipped into the arms of the locker, on a horizontal line with the bores b b in the face end of the rails. Fig. 4 indicates two rails joined by devices embodying my invention.

The fastener is constructed and the juncture of the rails is effected as follows Having passed the rods 0 0 into their respective perforations h and 7c of the locker, so that the ends of said rods project equally distant from both sides thereof, slip the rails into the arms d (1 d d of the locker up to the body P, passing the projecting ends of said rods into the bores 11 bof the rails. Then spike the locker and the rails to the ties.

The advantages of my invention are, first, that the fastener secures an accurate, close, and durable connection of the rails; second, that it does not interfere with either the contraction or the expansion of the rails; and, third, that the same is quickly attached, saving time, labor, and expense.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The locker G, composed of the four arms d d d (I and the body P, with the perforations h and k, in combination with the rods or dowelpins 0 c, substantially as and for the purpose stated.

2. The locker G, with perforations h and L and arms (1 dd (1, in combination with the rods 0 c and the face-bored rails A A, substantially as shown and described.

GEORGE F. HOEFFER.

Witnesses:

LINUS C. RUTH, UHAs. H. HEINE. 

